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What should you charge for this move?
Put in the home, the access, and your own rate. The calculator sizes the crew, works out the hours, and gives you a range to quote from, with the breakdown to back it up.
Quote from
$1,230 to $1,570
A range, because a real quote needs a walkthrough. The low end is the job going to plan; the high end covers what you find on the day.
How it adds up
- 3 movers and a truck, 7 hrs at $195/hr (incl. 1 hr travel) $1,365
The job behind the number
- Crew
- 3 movers
- Truck
- 20 ft box truck
- Hours on site
- 6 hrs
- Packing hours
- 0 hrs
- Estimated volume
- 900 cu ft
An estimate from rules of thumb, not a binding price. Your walkthrough, your rates, and your local market decide the real number.
How the calculator works
Every move starts as a volume: a studio is roughly 400 cubic feet of belongings, a three-bedroom house about 1,300, a five-bedroom around 2,300. The calculator sizes the crew from that volume (two movers up to a one-bedroom, three to a three-bedroom, four beyond), adds a mover for two or more flights of stairs and another for a specialty item, then works out hours on site from how much a mover loads and unloads in an hour, stretched by stairs and long carries.
A local move (50 miles or under) is priced the way the trade prices it: crew and truck by the hour, with a two-hour minimum and travel time billed. A long-distance move is priced on weight and distance, with a floor, because that is how the tariff works, plus the crew's hours loading and unloading at each end. Packing adds crew hours and materials on top.
The output is a range rather than a number on purpose. A calculator cannot see the fourth-floor walk-up or the wardrobe that will not fit down the stairs. Quote the range, do the walkthrough, and commit to the number.
Questions
Pricing a move, answered
How much should a moving company charge per hour?
Most small local movers charge a crew-and-truck rate, typically $120 to $200 an hour for two movers and a truck, plus $40 to $60 an hour for each additional mover, with a two to four hour minimum and travel time added. The right number for you depends on your market, your costs, and your wages. The calculator lets you set your own rates and prices the job from them.
How do movers estimate the cost of a move?
By volume and difficulty. A mover estimates the cubic feet or weight of the household, sizes the crew and truck to it, works out the hours from the volume and the access, and multiplies by an hourly rate for a local move or applies a weight-and-distance rate for a long-distance one. Stairs, long carries, packing, and specialty items each add to the hours or the crew.
What is the difference between a local and a long-distance move price?
A local move, generally under 50 miles, is priced by the hour: crew and truck for as long as the job takes. A long-distance move is priced on the weight of the shipment and the distance it travels, plus any packing and accessorial charges, because the hours are dominated by driving rather than by loading.
Why does the calculator give a range instead of a price?
Because a calculator cannot see the home. A range from rules of thumb is enough to tell a customer whether you are in their budget and to stop you underquoting on the phone; the firm number should come after a walkthrough or a video survey. Zip turns the walkthrough into the quote, with the inventory attached.
More free tools
Which other free tools might help?
Zip turns this estimate into a quote the customer can accept.
Build the inventory on a walkthrough, price it from your own rate card, and send a quote the customer signs from their phone. When they accept, it is already a job on your schedule.
The tools do one job. Zip does the whole move.
Quotes, dispatch, paperwork, and payments in one place, for movers running 1 to 10 trucks. Set it up in under an hour.
20 minutes · No sales pressure